Plum Tree Backers Support Cleanup

POQUOSON — The Poquoson City Council and community discuss getting rid of bombs on the island.

Plum Tree Island goes way back for Poquoson residents.

Watching the skies light up above the marshy flatlands was a form of evening entertainment in the 1950s, when planes from nearby Langley Field splattered the island with bombs and gunfire.

About 10 years ago, voters ousted half the City Council, feeling threatened by plans to expand Plum Tree Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Tuesday night was another chance to voice opinions. This time, it was to talk about cleaning up bombs on the island.

About 50 residents, watermen and hunters met at Poquoson Yacht Club. Outside the meeting hall, a wet northeast wind lapped water onto a wisp of land called Messick Point. Inside the meeting hall, several government agencies withstood a storm of viewpoints about the land just across the creek.

The federal government calls the refuge a danger zone, littered with an unknown number of bombs that the military left when it handed over the land to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the 1970s.

The land is off-limits. The water about 300 to 600 feet of the southern end of the island is marked with signs that read, "Danger -- No Trespassing -- Live Bombs."

But to Poquoson residents, this is pristine public property -- a place to camp out on the family duck blind, hunt for critters in Bells Oyster Gut or wade along the sandy beaches (even if it is illegal.)

Local hunter Sonny Insley did not like it when the feds told him Tuesday night that they might try to revoke state permits for the duck blinds in the danger zone.

"You seem adamant to get rid of the duck blinds," Insley said. "I've been walking that shore for 53 years."

Poquoson City Engineer Jeff Bliemel didn't like it when the feds told him that they might tear down a 70-foot-tall observation tower on the island because it attracts trespassers.

"The tower isn't a nuisance," Bliemel said. "The munitions are a nuisance. Any money you have, I don't think you should spend on taking down the tower. Take out the munitions."

City Councilman Arthur "Binks" Holloway Jr. didn't like it when the feds talked about taking a year to find out what part of the refuge had bombs and contamination.

"How can we let that stand there, allowing it to do the environmental damage it's doing?" asked Holloway, speculating that the bombs might be leaking pollutants into the Chesapeake Bay. "There are known things there now."

Richard Aiken, a contractor with the Army Corps of Engineers, corrected Holloway.

"Actually, we don't know," Aiken said.

"You should know," Holloway said.

The corps, which is in charge of investigating and perhaps cleaning up the former range, kept the meeting civil, repeatedly empathizing with residents and asking them to get involved in the process.

Adriane James, the corps' project manager, invited people to call her at her Norfolk office with suggestions at 201-7701.

Refuge Manager Joe McCauley said the easiest thing to do would be to just walk away and let things like the observation tower stay.

But what if a Poquoson teenager tries to climb the tower and gets killed?

A torrential tragedy -- McCauley doesn't want it on his conscience.

"You can call me and say it's OK, but it's not going to make me feel any better," he said.